Book 14 Celebration After Dark #2
Mac and Linda spend the morning remembering their first year on the island, recalling Mac introducing her to Ned, his first friend on the island, and their wedding.
They were married six months after they met, even though both sets of parents were concerned about how young they were.
Mac surprises Linda with a four-carat diamond ring, one carat for each decade they’ve been married.
He also surprises her with her dream trip to Paris in the spring.
They reminisce about all they have to be thankful for, especially their five children, their grandchildren and the gift of Mallory, the daughter Mac never knew he had until recently.
They certainly have a lot to celebrate at the party the kids are throwing for them, which is supposed to be a surprise, but they can’t get anything past ‘Voodoo Mama,’ their nickname for her.
Grant McCarthy isn’t sure what took Adam and Abby off island right before the party, but Adam has left him to run around tending to last-minute party preparations.
He struggles with the television he’s carrying into the Sand & Surf.
Even though they had a TV, Adam insisted that the video he put together for the occasion needed high definition and sent Grant on this errand.
After the New Year, Grant is heading to LA to begin production on the screenplay he wrote about his wife Stephanie’s struggle to free her stepfather, Charlie, from prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
Stephanie doesn’t want to relive her story and wants to stay on the island while he travels out west. Grant convinces her to join him and promises to keep the details away from her while they’re there.
Seamus O’Grady calls Joe Cantrell to inform him he’s shutting down the ferries for the day due to bad weather.
Worried that Adam, Abby, Evan and Grace won’t get back to the island for the party, Joe sends their pilot friend, Slim Jackson, a text asking him to fly the foursome to the island.
They have a bumpy flight from Westerly but thankfully make it home in time for the festivities.
It’s one o’clock, and Joe’s wife, Janey, is still asleep.
He and their son, PJ, go upstairs to check on her.
They find her curled up asleep in bed, but she startles awake when PJ makes a noise.
She takes PJ to nurse him, apologizing for sleeping the day away.
Joe concludes she’s pregnant again. Scared after PJ’s dramatic birth, he gently suggests she might be pregnant, which upsets her.
He lists the familiar symptoms and reminds her she didn’t know she was pregnant with PJ, either.
They decide to confirm the pregnancy and immediately seek out a specialist to ensure a safe delivery after the trauma of PJ’s birth.
Linda asks Mac to drive her to Luke Harris’s house to give him her anniversary gift. Linda found a 1935 Chris-Craft 557. Luke has been restoring it for six months, ever since Linda located it rotting away in a boatyard in Wisconsin.
“You’ve got the pictures?” Luke asks.
“I sure do.” Linda produces an album from her purse that documents the boat’s journey from broken down to fully restored.
“Wow,” Mac says as he flips through the photos. “This is incredible. What a great surprise.”
“I figured we could do some cruising on this one,” Linda says.
“We sure can.” He hugs her tightly. “Thank you so much, Lin. And Luke, you did an amazing job, as always.”
“It was fun. The best part was pulling one over on you.”
Big Mac laughs. “Which is not easy to do.”
“No, it isn’t. Hope you guys are having a really great day. You surely deserve it after not only raising your own family but also helping out with a few special cases.”
Big Mac releases Linda to put both hands on the shoulders of the man who showed up at the marina as a fatherless fourteen-year-old looking for a job and had become one of them in the ensuing years. “You’re family to us, Luke, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Luke swallows hard. “Thank you,” he says softly. “You’ve both meant more to me than you’ll ever know.”
Big Mac hugs him, and then Linda does the same.
“We love you,” she says.
“Same,” Luke replies.
“Thanks again, you guys,” Mac says, taking another long look at the boat. “I love it.”
Smiling at Luke, Linda gives him a giddy thumbs-up, thrilled that their gift is such a hit with the man who’s almost impossible to surprise.
Mac and Linda go home to get ready for their party. Ned and Francine come to pick them up. After fixing drinks, Linda and Francine talk about their favorite subject—their shared grandchildren.
Big Mac takes Ned aside. “I was thinking about you today.”
“What about me?”
“Remember when you were practically the only person I knew on this island?”
“Sure do,” Ned says with a chuckle. “Gave ya a ride over to North Harbor to check out the marina that first time.”
Big Mac smiles at his old friend. “I was thinking, too, about how you sold me this house for dirt cheap.”
“Ya had yer bride sleeping in the back room at the marina. Desperate times. Someone had ta do somethin’.”
Big Mac lets out a big laugh. He puts his hand on Ned’s shoulder. “Just want you to know—I never could’ve gotten through those first couple of years without Linda. But I couldn’t have done it without you, either. Getting in your cab that day was one of the best things I ever did in my whole life.”
Ned blinks furiously. “Aww, shit… yer all sappy today. Hell, yer sappy every day.”
“Maybe so, but I wanted you to know, just the same.”
“Means a lot ta me. Before Francine came back ta me, this was my home as much as yours. You and Linda and yer family… my family, too,” he says gruffly. “Woulda been a lonely life without y’all ta keep things interesting fer me.”
“This life of ours wouldn’t have been the same without you, either. My third brother.”
They arrive at Stephanie’s Bistro for the “surprise” party with their children and grandchildren greeting them. Adam, Abby, Mallory, Janey, Joe, Evan, Grace, Mac, Maddie, Stephanie, Grant, Thomas, Hailey and P.J. made up the welcoming committee in the lobby.
Thomas steps forward to present a wrist corsage made of white roses to Linda and a white rose for Big Mac’s lapel. “Are you surprised, Papa?” Thomas asks.
“So surprised, pal. How did you keep this a secret?”
The blond boy smiles widely. “I promised Daddy I wouldn’t tell.”
Big Mac hugs the little boy who’d made him a grandfather when Mac married his mother. “You did a good job keeping the secret.”
As they enter the restaurant, they’re pleasantly surprised by the large crowd of family and friends who’ve gathered to celebrate them.
Big Mac’s brothers, Frank and Kevin, hug him, as does his adorably pregnant niece Laura, his nephews Shane, Riley and Finn, Linda’s sister, Joan, and her family, Alex and Jenny Martinez, Dan Torrington, Kara Ballard, Luke and Sydney Harris, Paul Martinez and his fiancée, Hope Russell, Shane’s fiancée, Katie Lawry, and her brother, Laura’s husband, Owen Lawry.
Katie and Owen’s mother, Sarah, and her fiancé, Charlie Grandchamp, are there, as are Carolina and Seamus O’ Grady, Maddie’s sister, Tiffany, and her husband, Blaine Taylor, David Lawrence and his girlfriend, Daisy Babson, and Jared and Lizzie James.
Everyone who was anyone to them had come.
Even Mayor Chet Upton and his wife, Verna, are there.
Mac makes a toast to his parents, which has everyone laughing at his irreverence.
He introduces the video Adam put together with pictures spanning from the day they met, to their wedding, the purchase of the hotel, the births of their children, weddings, grandchildren, Mallory joining their family and concluding with a photo of Big Mac and Linda kissing at Alex and Jenny Martinez’s wedding last fall.
As the video ends, the room erupts into applause.
Big Mac kisses Linda, lingering longer than he normally would in public, and then leans his forehead against hers, whispering, “What a story.”
“What a story, indeed.”
Evan, in charge of music for the night, begins with their wedding song, “You’re the First, the Last, my Everything,” by Barry White, for the happy couple.
Toward the end of the evening, Laura begins distributing keys to rooms upstairs for the family.
Her gift to the aunt and uncle who saved her childhood after her mother passed away from cancer is having their whole family under the same roof for the evening.
When they’re down to just family, Laura sends everyone to change into something cozy and then to join Evan and Owen in the sitting room for music and snacks.
Leaving the party, Slim drives to the lighthouse.
He can’t wait to see Erin. They’ve spent the last few months talking on the phone and on FaceTime.
He left after Alex and Jenny’s wedding with just a kiss goodnight.
He’s wondered this whole time why he stopped with just one kiss.
Slim tells Erin he’s unsure of what she wants.
Erin asks, “How long can you stay?”
“I’m here until after the New Year and then back to Florida through the end of March. Were you planning to go home to Pennsylvania for Christmas?”
“Well, I was until I heard this pilot friend of mine might be coming to town for the holidays.”
“And what did your mom have to say about your change in plans?”
“To quote her directly, ‘If I had a choice between here or there with that sexy pilot, I’d pick the pilot.’”
They have twelve days to spend together to figure out their next move.
Back at the Sand and Surf, Linda is snuggled up to her husband as she reflects on one of the best days of her life. She’s surrounded by her children and grandchildren, with Evan and Owen playing all their favorite music. After he asks why she’s so quiet, Linda tells Mac, “Just taking it all in.”
“It’s a lot to take in.”
“To think it began with you and me and led to this.”
“It began with you and me forty years ago today.”
She smiles at him and raises her glass to touch it to his. “You were right, you know.”
He raises a rakish eyebrow. “About?”
“Everything. Us, the marina, the hotel, buying the house, raising the kids here. All of it. I don’t know if I ever actually told you that. Everyone thought you were crazy for staking your claim here, but you knew exactly what you were doing.”
“Hell, sweetheart,” he says with a laugh, “I didn’t know a damned thing other than I wanted you and I wanted Gansett. The rest was pure, dumb luck.”
“It was a lot more than that, and you know it.”
“None of it would’ve happened without you.”
“Yes, it would have. You were on fire with ambition and determination.”
“I was, but I wonder if I wouldn’t have burned out here long before the marina took off if I hadn’t had you to keep me company on all those cold winter nights.”
They thank everyone for the glorious celebration. Adam announces he and Abby are getting married on New Year’s Eve. Linda notices Abby is less than thrilled and wonders what’s going on.
In light of the news they received from the specialist, Abby is still cautious about Adam tying himself to her.
He loves her and only her. While making love that night, Abby remembers he’s always loved her just as she is and realizes he’ll love her through her health challenges.
She shares her thoughts with him, and he tells her that as long as they have each other, everything will work out.
Over the holiday, the family learns of the two new babies on the way.
They’re happy that Stephanie decided to go to with Grant to LA.
Evan and Grace will be married in nineteen days, and then they’ll be traveling in support of his music with the encouragement of their family.
Adam shares Abby’s diagnosis with his parents and their worries about fertility.
Now the only one left to worry about is Mallory.
Big Mac is trying to convince her to move to the island.
Abby and Adam take over McCarthy’s Gansett Island Inn for their New Year’s Eve wedding.
They follow Laura’s lead and book rooms for all their guests at the inn so they can celebrate safely.
Daisy, the head of housekeeping, helps them finalize details, as the regular event planner is off for the holidays.
She’s glowing with happiness following her engagement to Dr. David Lawrence.
The McCarthy family has moved far past his breakup with Janey and is thrilled for both of them.
Adam’s groomsmen are his brothers, Joe and Owen.
His nephew, Thomas, serves as the ring bearer, and Uncle Frank presides over the ceremony.
Abby asks Grace to be her maid of honor, with Maddie, Laura and Stephanie as her attendants.
Abby had been skeptical that they could pull off a decent wedding with only eleven days to prepare, but as usual, Adam has shown her that anything is possible if you want it badly enough.
Finally, after many ups and downs, Adam gives Abby her happily ever after, and the best part is, she gets to spend the rest of her life with him.